We Need Communist Education for Classless Society
CALIFORNIA, USA —“The college president sees students only in terms of how much money they might bring in,” a counselor accused. “He doesn’t even think about how to use the money to help them succeed.”
Everything in capitalism is about “money.” But we don’t think enough about how different education can and should be.
For example: under a new “funding formula,” California community colleges will get state money based (in part) on how many students get degrees. What are “degrees” really? Why must students take a seemingly random bunch of classes to get one?
A little history lesson…
In medieval Europe, degrees were steps for young men who were training as clergy. As priests, they would spread the ideology that helped the landowning nobility maintain its brutally exploitative social order (feudalism). The church was central to that ruling class.
The rising capitalist class mobilized masses to overthrow feudalism. Then it adapted the academic system to meet its own needs. After the French Revolution of 1789, the new government took control of the Université de France away from the Catholic church. Now it would spread bourgeois ideology – still to keep the masses oppressed.
The French capitalists also extended scientific and technical training for civilian and military engineers. Those with degrees served the new capitalist state – or helped capitalists profit.
In the 19th century US, most colleges trained young men as ministers. They spread religious ideology to support the capitalist social order – including slavery. A few elite colleges granted “degrees” to sons of the ruling class to identify them as future rulers.
After the Civil War, US industrial capitalism grew rapidly. It established government-run “land-grant” colleges on land stolen from indigenous people. These trained the agricultural scientists and industrial engineers it needed to rise as a world power.
The number of college degrees skyrocketed. Some certified technical competence. Many were tickets to government jobs in teaching, law enforcement, social work and other professions that help the rulers control the masses. College degrees served to divide the working class by assigning some a social status higher than the rest.
…And some thoughts for the future
Will communist society offer degrees? No. Our classless society will not use schooling to create social distinctions. We will all participate in making and carrying out decisions, so nobody will be anointed as a “ruler.”
Much communist education will revolve around productive work. Everyone will be able to develop technical skills in one or many fields. “Professions” like science, medicine, engineering and teaching will be absorbed into workers’ collectives. Communism won’t need lawyers – or clergy – or degrees.
Communist education will also deepen our collective understanding of history, philosophy and other aspects of culture. This will help develop communist social relations. No degrees needed!
“The first universities were collections of student-run residential colleges,” commented a friend. “I wonder if there is a connection between student-run versus state-run institutions and how that might impact capitalist pursuits.”
In communism, everyone will work and learn throughout their lives. Each of us will be a worker, a student, and a teacher. Together we will figure out forms for all social institutions – and end all capitalist pursuits. No money involved in education or anything else!
Restructured Community Colleges: Reform, Reaction or Revolution
Community colleges are closely tied to the job market. They absorb the “reserve army of the unemployed” during recessions. (“Don’t rebel, get a degree.”)
One way they help the capitalists’ bottom-line is by having students and/or workers’ taxes pay for job training. (Capitalists used to pay workers to learn “on the job.”) Increasingly, community college programs like “Guided Pathways” steer students directly into employers’ arms.
Some teachers like this: “We want students to get degrees quickly that will lead to a job.” Others are appalled at a wave of new corporate-driven policies imposed by the California State Legislature (controlled by Democrats). They don’t want students treated as commodities processed on an assembly line.
It’s not easy to move the discussion away from this reformist debate. When teachers and students don’t see the working class as a potentially revolutionary force, communist politics may seem interesting but not especially relevant.
Increasing the circulation of Red Flag will help to show that’s wrong. This paper describes the class struggle raging worldwide. It shows that the masses in motion are responding to communist ideas. Communist revolution is the only way to begin to create the education – and everything else – that the working class needs.
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